Purely Education
by misskmski
Summary: The year is 1938; A young wizard and witch escort each other to Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington's Deathday party, to help aid Ethan's failing scores in Ghoul Studies - and Saviya would tutor him until his grades got better. Despite having a crush on a gorgeous Slytherin, Ethan might find himself sparing a dance for the eccentric Gryfindor tonight; and possibly enjoying it as well.


Disclaimer: I own nothing, except Ethan and Saviya. Enjoy.

A young wizard leaned up against the cold stone walls, checking his wristwatch and glancing around nervously. Not that he was paranoid or anything, but he would prefer that people didn't see his date tonight. She was pretty, yes, just.. unique, would be the best term there. What he was worried about was how long this party would be; tomorrow being Saturday, he had Quidditch practice quite early in the morning and would be so keen on missing it, let alone being late at all. His hair was slicked to the side, and he was nicely shaven. Normally, he would only dress up this nice if he were meeting with Evangeline, but his grade in Ghoul Studies on hankering on this. His nice black dress robes billowed ever so slightly in the night time chill, as quiet footsteps approached Ethan. He looked up and spotted her.

With a form fitting black dress that went to her knees, her black heels that matched, she wore her hair down, although it was neatly curled, with a set of matching black glass jewelry, it was hard to not notice how extremely beautiful Saviya was looking tonight; he would even go on to say that he might have been the only one in years that has seen her so dolled up. With a small smile on her red lips, she said, "Sorry to have been late, Ethan. You look dashing,"

"That's.. that's quite alright, thank you. Are you ready?" it only took Ethan a split second to recover from admiring her; it seemed like she didn't even notice. With a straight face, he offered his arm to the young witch and smiling, she hooked up her arm with his. And with that, they made their way into the dungeons.

Ethan opened the door for her, and immediately was hit with an awful, atrocious odor; indeed, as both of them had previously studied, ghosts will claim that with food so rotten, they can almost taste it. Cringing a little, Ethan followed Saviya inside, instantly reaching for her arm again. Saviya seemed too in awe to have notice Ethan's advances; she scanned the room and was simply astounded. Black candles that burned blue created an eerie, ethereal glow to the atmosphere, as the ghosts of Hogwarts (plus a few that neither Saviya nor Ethan recognized) floated by in pairs and such, talking merrily in conversation. Long, black tapestries covered the dungeons walls with a bit of a remorseful regality, indeed it was a Death day party for Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington. Not normally something living people are invited too, but Nicholas had agreed to help further Ethan's education in Ghoul Studies. Almost on cue, Nicholas, had spotted the new arrivals.

"How wonderful for you two to join us!" Nicholas beamed, floating on towards them. A rather pretty ghostly lady follow Nicholas close behind, and didn't speak a word. Saviya smiled back, "Our pleasures, happy ..death day?"

"As happy as it will ever be," Nicholas laughed, and nodded over to his spectral date, "Saviya, Ethan, this is Lady Cullins; a dear friend of mind in the life and death," Lady Cullins nodded her head and issued a small smile on her pale, fair face, with blonde hair that cascaded down to her ankles. She was a petite woman, who looked to be in her late twenties, a young maiden indeed.

"How do you do," Saviya said, as Ethan nodded his head at both of them.

"My boy, how are you enjoying the educational party?" Nicholas boomed, to which Ethan casually smiled back, "Well, sir. Saviya is quite knowledgeable."

"I couldn't agree more," Nicholas replied, and then smiled back at Lady Cullins, who only nodded again and stated in a soft voice, almost like a wisp of air, "Sir Nicholas, the band has started playing,"

Ethan hadn't even noticed the ghostly band that was playing a slow, dismal waltz that gave Saviya chills. Nicholas then offered his arm and grinned, "The lady has spoken, and is awaiting her dance. Ethan, Saviya,"

"It was nice to meet you, Lady Cullins," Saviya called after them, and her eyes settled on the many ghostly couples dancing eerily slow to the waltz. She glanced up at Ethan, and he offered his arm to her, as they began a slow lounge around the dungeons, taking in the sights of the ghostly party and observing. "Quite interesting to see how people cope after death,"

"Saviya, how do.. well," How would he word this? Ethan was pretty sure this was covered in a subject in the very beginning of Ghoul Studies, but it proved be a quite tricky class for Ethan to stay focused in.

"Do they become ghosts?" Saviya finished for him, and Ethan furrowed his eyebrows. It seemed Saviya always knew what he was thinking, or at least partially. He nodded to her, and she gave him a simple answer, as if the answer was easy enough to guess, "Those who stay as spirits are afraid of death," Her eyes wandered all about the room, admiring the décor and detail. Quiet murmurings countless conversations filled the dungeons. Saviya quite liked the atmosphere.

"Afraid of death?" Ethan countered, his mind immediately reeled back to numerous memories of his lovely, young mother curled up in bed with him as a child before bedtime, reading from a rather tattered book that had obviously seen a few generous. She never read from anything else, it happened to be one of her favorite books. Ethan faintly remembered her saying her it belonged to her as a little girl as well. "There was a story my mum used to read me, from Tales of Beedle the Bard.. it was the Tale of-

"-Three Brothers, I know of it. How the youngest brother joined Death willingly," Saviya smiled slightly, "Miriam used to read it to me as well. While we can only guess what happened to the other two brothers, I have a feeling they might've became ghosts as well; since they wanted to humiliate Death, one can only guess they feared it too. Now, it is just a tale," that comment earned her a bit of a glare from Ethan, who felt inclined to defend his childhood stories, but Saviya continued, "it does state that the youngest one was the only one to go willingly. Accepted it, no fear. The stone sounds like the fear of being alone, living without your loved ones, the fear to move on after death? And the wand…sounds like he was trying to overcome Death, overpower it.."

It was at this moment that he notice Saviya was rambling slightly, apparently completely engrossed in the subject. Subconsciously, Ethan found it rather charming, how passionate she seemed to be on this topic. No wonder she had top grades in that class. Ethan grinned at her enthusiasm about the subject, and asked smartly, "So what about the cloak? The youngest brother sought to hide from Death, did he not? I figured when someone hid, they were afraid."

"Correct. He was afraid of Death, he was weary of his tricks, so he did not trust Death. It was only when he was old and at the end of his life, that he finally accepted his fate and was no longer afraid." And Saviya was puzzled now, as she continued on, "It's seemed that the fear of Death doesn't come from dying, or what happens, after. It seems to come from whether you accept that death is inevitable,"

"..I'm afraid of what happens after," Ethan spoke quietly. Saviya only glanced up at him, quite a personal and intimate thing to say, and comfortingly rubbed his arm with her free hand. "Many people are," She agreed, although she was not afraid of death. "At least you have colorful food to look forward too." She motioned to the table across the way.

"That's enough to scare me out of being a ghost," Ethan muttered, glancing at the rotten food at the other side of the dungeon, and looked as if he were to gag.

"Does the smell offend that badly?" Saviya laughed, as Ethan gave her a look as if she had asked something crazy, "Of course Saviya, that food has to be decades old-"

But no other words would make it out, for Ethan couldn't help but notice the small gleam that appeared in her sweet brown eyes. Saviya chuckled a little, before shyly taking his hand; her fingers were warm, smooth, a beautiful dark skin tone.. and for a split second he wanted to grasp her hand firmly, but thought better of it almost instantly. She started slowly leading him to the dance floor. Once Ethan realized this, he stopped in his tracks and asked her quietly, dreading the response, "Saviya, what are you doing,"

Looking over her shoulder, she held his hand for only a minute longer, "Why, hoping that you would dance with me, of course,"

"N-No. We came here for educational observation,"

The words tumbled out of his mouth before he even realized the damage done. When had she let go of his hand? His arm fell to his side and the look on Saviya's face spoke volumes, as if some unseen magic had been broken. She immediately clasped her hands in front of her, and even in this dim blue light, he could see the rosy blush creeping onto her lovely face. Her lip trembled slightly, and she only nodded, "You're right, let's.. let's observe then,"

All he could do was nod back; why had he turned down that dance? Friends could dance as well as any other set of friends. Not only that, but as Nicholas' words rang in his head, he couldn't believe he just turned a lady at a dance, no matter how.. different she was. Never turn a lady down for a dance. He opened his mouth to say something, and in a millisecond he decided against it. Instead, he searched the room for something to distract the situation, to diffuse it, anything- and his eyes settled on what seemed to be the Bloody Baron engaged in a rather extraordinary tale of his time alive. Ethan tried to tune into what was being said, and spun around to see if Saviya was interested in joining him with the Bloody Baron, but in the process of being utterly flustered, he didn't realize how quickly Saviya had slipped away. Thanking his lucky stars, he made to sit in on the Bloody Baron's tale, deciding on finding her after a while.

But Ethan would not have to travel far to locate her; her tangled thoughts lead her just down the corridor a little, and on stone bench against the wall. Sitting down rather gloomily, she couldn't understand why his rejection stung. Maybe he didn't even consider them to be friends? Purely educational?

She kicked a nearby pebble on the ground, she should have known better then to try and suede one of the most achieved wizarding students in this school; surely he would have girls on hand, like a waiting list. Being on the Quidditch team was popularity enough, the talk about him was endless. Not to mention, MacDougal was a pureblood family, as far as history tells it. He would probably have no interest in a Muggle-born, as it were. Infact, now that she recalled, she vaguely remembered seeing Ethan with that strawberry blonde haired girl from Slytherin. Mentally kicking herself, she should've remembered that before stupidly asking him to dance.

It was absolutely quiet; she could hear her glass earrings clanking and the soft, ghostly orchestra drifting from down the ways. Saviya would return to the party momentarily; she needed to collect herself and recover from the sheer embarrassment. From now on, completely educational. Nothing further.

Another ten minutes crawled by, before Saviya stood up. Sighing once more, she started to make her way to the party again; this time more stable. Her heels clicked down the hallway, as the chilly autumn air caressed her skin. She shivered slightly, smoothing out her dress, and turned the corridor.

Out of nowhere, she ran right into someone, throwing herself and the person back a little bit, each scrambling to apologize at once, "Oh my, I'm so sorry, I wasn't watchin-"

"-no, it's my fault, didn't see you th-" But Ethan's words were cut short when he realized he had found his date. She blushed a lighter shade, hands clasped in front her again and said, "Sorry to have left, I-I needed some fresh air,"

"It's fine," Ethan replied, peering down at her. Obviously, there was much more to the story as to why she was out in the corridors. Her brown eyes (quite entrancing brown eyes), outlined in a thin black liner, flickered from the candle torches to Ethan, and back. The tension in the air wasn't thick, but it was present, as if a secret had been discovered. Saviya was the first one to break the silence, "Is the party still-"

"Listen," Ethan cut her off, and took a step closer to her, "I need to apologize for what had been said earlier. I'm sorry; I didn't mean to offend you in any way," He sighed, seeing her expression soften and sadden slightly, "I.. I just can't dance well," He lied. He was an excellent dancer, but he had to say something to right the situation.

"Oh, it's fine. I was just.. the lighting was so romantic, I guess I got caught up in the moment," she spoke softly, as if she wasn't quite sure of what she was saying; she was looking up at him with a slight twinkle in her eyes, like she was aching to say much more. Ethan nodded.

"Well, would you like to go back to the party?" Saviya asked. The question dangled in the air.

"No, I don't think I do, unless you'd like to," Ethan added quickly, not to be one to leave on a date first. Saviya shook her head, and looked away, "No, I'm fine as well. I think it was educational enough, don't you?"

Following that, she made to turn and lead the way out of the dungeons. Anything to end this awkward night. But a hand on her wrist stopped her dead in her tracks, and she glanced over her shoulder at Ethan. Her heart felt like it had dropped twenty pounds in her chest. Yes, he had reached out to grab her. She looked into his handsome face with a bit of a piercing stare, and asked, "Yes?"

Ethan opened his mouth, then shut it, before finding the courage to ask his question, "Would.. you dance with me?"

The orchestra was still in full swing; the eerily, yet graceful waltz traveled up and down the corridor, lingering around the young witch and wizard like forgotten chivalry. Saviya turned in full, and daringly took a few steps up to him, her facial expression seemed almost humorous. She was maybe a foot from him when she spoke, and with much wit, "I thought you said you can't dance,"

"I'm a quick learner," He rationalized. Oh, how he hoped she would just dance with him; no gentleman should ever end a party without dancing with the lady, and he almost screwed it all up. Even if she was eccentric, unique, and a bit of a loner.. he still owed her at least one dance.

Saviya quirked an eyebrow, glanced around the corridor, and then sighed. His eyes were peering deep into hers, and she now knew why he was such a heart throb; indeed, his chiseled stare, cleanly shaven, and mature stance could charm a woman into anything. Finally, she agreed and spoke, as quiet as whisper, "Alright, one dance,"

Unable to hide a devilish grin that was spreading over Ethan's face, he pulled her up to him, snaking his right hand on her waist and the left hand holdings hers. Staying true to his lie, he waited for her to lead and she did, quite fluently, like she had been dancing on water. Ethan followed her seamless pattern, inwardly astounded with her dancing skills.

"When I was little, my mother had taught my sisters and myself," She spoke, answering his questions he hadn't spoken. Ethan snorted, and took the lead slowly, "You are a fine dancer, that is for sure,"

Ethan was hardly listening to what he was saying; as he stared down into this young gypsy's face, he couldn't help but admire her beauty, how he had not seen it before. Any thoughts of Evangeline had disappeared from that moment on. Her brunette hair, curled so nice and neatly, ended at her waist and fluttered around as they moved. Through the fabrics of her dress, he could easily tell just how petite she was, and that fueled his temptation to secure her even closer. Just to feel her, to correct the earlier mistake.. to end the night on a good note.

So he did, leading her in closer and with a tighter grip, he gave into the primal desire to feel her body, and caress what others probably had not. Not to say she wasn't desirable, he had just never seen her without her books and quills. Always studying, brewing something at the lunch table, hurrying off to another class, sometimes covered in potting soil, talking quietly amongst her two only friends.. It was like she never had time for romance, like she had never considered it. But the increased grip allowed more than just an intimate dance; Saviya laid her head down on his chest, as the dancing slowed to a bit of a drawl, and she seemed to be enjoying the touch.

Many girls had made comments about his nice chest during Quidditch season, and Saviya could finally understand why. He welcomed her gesture, and rested his chin on her head, before muttering, "Purely educational,"

"Whatever you want," was all Saviya replied, and that was all Ethan needed. Grinning, he held the witch comfortably in his arms, and the music seemed to last forever.


End file.
